


Addition

by missmollyetc



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: M/M, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-13
Updated: 2010-02-13
Packaged: 2017-10-07 05:29:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/61871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmollyetc/pseuds/missmollyetc
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Don does the math.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Addition

0 + 0 = 0

 

Charlie says that everything is numbers. He believes--fervently, passionately--that numbers can--that numbers will--explain everything. So during the meeting Don slips his legal pad into his lap and gets down to business with Terri's stolen pen.

1 + 0 = 1.

He pauses, digging the pen point into the base of the one. The ink stains the page, spreading in a circle. Don shifts in his chair, and carefully lifts the pen away. He considers his equation.

Don is not a mathematician. _Charlie_ is a mathematician--no, Charlie is a magician, drawing numbers out of a top hat that always come out the way they're supposed to. Don is a federal officer, and the only thing he draws (besides conclusions) is his gun.

1 + 0 = 1.

It's inescapable. Put one next to nothing and the answer will always come out to be one. In that, he and his brother--his _little_ brother--are always on the same page.

Laughlin down from the upper offices changes slides, and delves into the wonderful world of carbon dating. Terri starts to play with a loose thread on her pantleg. Don rolls the pen between his thumb and forefinger.

The thing that gets Don, that should take him out of the game, and just _doesn't_. Is what comes next.

1 + 1 = 2.

The pen rips through the paper, tearing his answer in half. Don flinches. One plus one shouldn't equal two. It shouldn't, by all that's holy, equal two, and yet... Don has found that it does. Time and again.

In this, despite of all Charlie's protestations... No matter how much Charlie would agree that, yes, one and one equal two...

In his equation, Don believes he's alone.

So he was wrong after all.


End file.
